This Bank Wants To Connect at an Emotional Level With Customers (photo by Franck Mahon, Flickr)

OK, so to most of us the words “love” and “bank” don’t seem to go together, but when ATB Financial decided to research the emotions people had about their financial institutions, it asked them to write either a love letter or a break-up letter to their bank.

Today’s guests, Tawnya Crerar, Director of Client and Marketing Research at ATB Financial, and Anne Coulter, Managing Director, RSG, set out to explore the psychoanalytics underlying how people feel about their banks. The letters they got were surprisingly touching and emotional, telling bad stories but also lovely ones.

the use of a simulation tool to help bank colleagues understand the impact of their actions on growing the bank’s customer base

the trade-off between attracting new customers and retaining existing ones (and the clever balance they found)

how ATB has changed its hiring and on-boarding processes to ensure that new hires fit into the customer-centric culture they are building

In a later episode you’ll get to hear their CEO’s perspective. If you want to make sure you don’t miss that one, sign up for the Frank Ideas newsletter, so you’ll always be alerted when a new episode comes out. Just put your email address in the box below.

Tema Frank has been helping businesses and organizations market themselves more effectively on the Internet since the late 1990s. In 2001 she founded Web Mystery Shoppers Inc., one of the world's first remote usability testing companies, and one of the very few to do large-sample size usability testing.

In 2012 she launched the Frank Online Marketing Show, a weekly podcast devoted to helping Canadian companies become more successful online.

She has taught e-marketing at the University of Alberta and the Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (in France), given seminars and workshops on the topic, and written about how the internet can help businesses sell more and communicate better.

She is also the author of the best-selling book, "Canada's Best Employers for Women: A guide for job-hunters, employees and employers."